Taxation of property is a prime means for governmental units to collect money. For example, school districts, cities, townships, park districts and other governmental units levy a tax on real estate. The taxes collected are then used to finance governmental services. The collection of these taxes is critical to the functioning of the governmental units.
Collection of taxes on property is complex. First, there are many different types of property that may be taxed. Real estate, automobiles, business licenses, and boats are just some of the properties that can be taxed. There are a multitude of different entities that may own property. Individuals, corporations, not-for-profit corporations, and partnerships, for example, may own property. The property itself may change. A real estate parcel may be divided, improved or joined with other parcels. The parcel may even be renamed. Personal property, such as an automobile, may change physical location from one address to another.
Further, property can also change classifications. For example, a mobile home may be initially classified as personal property. When it becomes affixed to a foundation on land, it may be considered as real property.
Finally, there are a multitude of different governmental units imposing a tax on property. A single piece of property can be taxed by several governmental units. To further complicate the collection of taxes, the various units may not have identical jurisdictions. A community may be contained in more than one county. The community may have a park district which can collect taxes over a geographical area which is different from the community itself. School districts may include multiple communities. Further, special assessments for governmental improvement of real estate, such as for the installation of sidewalks and street lighting, may apply to only a select group of properties within a community.
In order to manage the collection of property taxes, governmental units usually have a tax officer devoted exclusively to collection of property taxes. The tax officer usually is not directly responsible for maintaining records associated with the property. Thus, the tax officer must rely on the various other services to maintain property records. For example, one government agency may be charged with maintaining vehicle registrations while a second government agency may be responsible for maintaining real estate records while a third agency may be responsible for assessing the value of the property.
A simplified information model for managing the disparate data sources in a single integrated data structure is highly desirable.